


The Soldier Priest

by Regalredstar



Category: Dark Angel, V (2009)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-16
Updated: 2014-01-13
Packaged: 2018-01-04 20:50:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1085553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Regalredstar/pseuds/Regalredstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Father Jack Landry remembers the pulse. More than that he remembers what actually happened, not just the government cover-up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own V or Dark Angel  
> The Soldier Priest is based on the question, "What if the priest in Pollo Loco had been Father Jack Landry of V?" From there the story took on a life of its own.  
> The title is based on a line from the fourth episode of V. "You have to decide Father, which are you, a soldier or a priest?"

Prologue:

Father Jack Landry remembered the pulse. Actually, he remembered it better than most, since he was one of the few people in the world who knew how it actually happened, not just the government cover-up. More than that, Jack remembered what happened before the pulse. What the rest of the world seemed to have forgotten.

Jack remembered the Visitors, or Vs as they were called. Aliens from another galaxy they claimed to come in peace. They lied. They came not for peace, but for war. War against this planet, and all who lived on it.

Jack had been a member of the Fifth Column, an underground group composed of both humans and Visitors, who were devoted to bringing down the Visitors' evil queen Anna and her followers.

In time they succeeded, Anna was defeated, and her daughter Lisa, who was herself a Fifth Column member, was placed on the throne.

But even though they had technically won the war, Jack couldn't help but feeling that in reality they had lost. So many had fallen, first those who fought in the war against Anna, then the countless innocents who died as a result of Anna's last stand.

Anna had released a wave of blue energy-the V's potent power source-a mile above the United States. The resulting backlash had caused an electro-magnetic pulse that had fried every computer chip in the US. Thousands had died as cars stopped working and planes fell from the sky.

After that, Lisa had taken leadership of the V's and left earth with her human husband, Tyler Evans, son of Fifth Column leader Erica Evans. The government had claimed that the pulse-as it came to be known-was caused by terrorists setting off a nuclear bomb a mile up. And that was that.

The Fifth Column had disbanded. Its members going to wherever they thought that they would be of the most use. Erica had returned to the FBI, Jack to the church. Eventually Jack, having long ago lost contact with Erica and the others, found himself in Seattle where he lived a normal, alien free existence.

It had been ten years since then, and Jack had finally reached the point where he was certain that nothing weird would happen to him again. At least that was what he thought until the day that a most unusual young woman walked into his church.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I started this story way back in 2010, but then I kind of ignored it for a while. Then when I was going through my works to transfer over to this site from FF I found it again and decided that I really did have to finish it.  
> So that's what I'm going to do. The goal right now is to post one chapter every other Monday (and I expect anyone reading this to hold me to that, please post annoying messages on the fic until I post the chapter) until the fic is finished. Which will probably be a while, seeing as how I have the rest of season 1 and all of season 2 of Dark Angel already outlined.  
> Til Next Time,  
> Regal


	2. Max: A Most Unusual Priest

Max slid into the back row of the church and waited. Ben had been here, she knew that much. Where else would he go?

Her brother. Ben. He was everything and yet… what he had done.

Max sat there, waiting. Hours past. More than she could count. Still she waited, and as she did, her thoughts raced in a thousand different directions.

Logan, he had been acting strange lately. What was up with that? Was it something she had done? She knew he was worried about what was going on with Ben. Normally she would have told him everything. But this? She couldn't let him see this. He would never understand. How could he? He hadn't been there. Hadn't seen what Lydecker had done to them, what he had forced them to do.

Lydecker. If she could catch wind of Ben, so could he. He would be here before they knew it. That was why it was so important to find Ben, and fast.

Lost in her thoughts, Max was surprised when a man sat down beside her, "Are you waiting for someone?"

She turned to face him he was an older man, older than her, Logan too, around Lydecker's age maybe? Yes, that was probably it.

She forced a smile, "Picking up girls in a church now?"

She blushed as the man laughed, and pulled back his coat to reveal a clerical collar, "No actually, this is my church. I'm Father Jack Landry, the priest here. How are you doing?" Max stiffened at the question. The priest seemed to sense it and hastened to add, "I only ask because you've been sitting here for over a day."

"I just… I have some things to think about."

The man smiled, "Church is a good place to do that."

"Yea, I suppose it is."

"You know, sometimes talking helps."

Max held back a snort of bitter laughter. "Trust me. This isn't the kind of thing you can talk about."

"Well, if you change your mind, I'm always willing to listen."

This time Max couldn't bold back the sarcasm in her voice, "Believe me Father. You wouldn't be able to deal with what I've faced."

"You might be surprised. I've faced some pretty odd things in my time. Things even you would be surprised at.."

She decided to humor him, "Yea, I'm sure you have."

"No," he met her eyes. "Trust me, I have." He smiled one last time and slid out of the pew and walked to the back of the church.

Max watched as the priest walked away. That man seen things that she would be surprised at? Yea right.

But there was something in his eyes, something that made her stop and take a second glance. Those were the eyes of someone who had seen far more than most. Those eyes were not the eyes of a priest who had never left the sanctuary of his church. In many ways, they seemed to be the eyes of a soldier. 

Max sighed. Those eyes troubled her, because well, she knew them. She saw them everyday... They stared out of the faces of those she cared for the most, out of Logan, out of Zack, and, most chillingly of all, out of herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1 week down. Well... at least I'm not behind yet.


	3. Jack: A Strange Meeting

Jack stood in the back of the church, watching. It was something he often did, joy filling him as he looked upon who came to God even in the midst of these trying times.

But today he wasn't observing those who came to the sanctuary and prayer, but rather all of his attention was drawn to a young woman sitting quietly by herself near the back of the church. If Jack wasn't mistaken, she had been here when he left yesterday. In fact, he'd put good money on her having been here all night.

A voice that sounded suspiciously like Erica whispered in his head, Go talk to her. That made Jack stop. Go talk to her? That was as likely to scare her away as anything. Her body language screamed a desire to be alone.

Jack go talk to her. His imaginary Erica now had the tone that the real Erica would get right before she ordered the Fifth Column to do something impossibly brave, impossibly stupid, or both.

"Great," he muttered. "Now the voices in my head are ordering me around."

Jack! He could almost hear the exasperated sigh. Go talk to her. She needs someone like you in her corner for the things she's about to face.

"Fine." He grumbled. Maybe when this was over he could go find the real Erica and yell at her for the things that her imaginary counterpart was having him do. She'd probably laugh at him, tell him that it was his own problem that his subconscious used her voice when ordering him around, but at least he'd be able to hear her voice. The real her that is, not the one in his head.

Quietly he slid into the row beside the young woman. "Are you waiting for someone?"

He watched as she turned startled to face him, a smile, that even the most unobservant person could tell was forced, on her face, "Picking up girls in a church now?"

That made Jack laugh. Carefully he undid his coat. "No actually, this is my church. I'm Father Jack Landry, the priest here. How are you doing?" Jack watched her tense at the question. So there was something wrong then. Well, best not to scare her off. "I only ask because you've been sitting here for over a day."

Jack watched her bite her lip as if trying to decide what to say, "I just… I have some things to think about."

Jack smiled encouragingly, "Church is a good place to do that."

"Yea," She looked around as if seeing it for the first time. "I suppose it is."

Okay, her feelings were showing more openly now. Time to see if she would talk about them, "You know, sometimes talking helps."

He heard traces of bitter laughter in her voice as she answered. "Trust me. This isn't the kind of thing you can talk about."

"Well, if you change your mind, I'm always willing to listen." Jack smiled comfortingly, even as inside his mind screamed. This girl couldn't be more than twenty years old! What could she have experienced that was so horrible that she couldn't talk about it?

"Believe me Father. You wouldn't be able to deal with what I've faced." The anguish that Jack her in her voice made his blood boil. Now he knew why his subconscious had forced him to come over here. Someone had hurt her, and badly. Jack didn't know how, or who, but he knew someone had, and that alone made her someone Jack would try to help.

He tried as best he could to get across the message that he would be ready to help if she ever wanted him to, "You might be surprised. I've faced some pretty odd things in my time. Things even you would be surprised at."

"Yea, I'm sure you have." He could tell she was humoring him.

"No," he met her eyes. "Trust me, I have." He smiled one last time and slid out of the pew and walked back to the back of the church.

Jack felt her eyes following him as he walked. Good. The fact that she was watching meant that maybe something he said had gotten through to her.

Jack was nearly at the back of the church when he saw him. He was a young man, with a small bundle clutched tightly in his hand. Instinctively Jack knew that this was whom the girl was waiting for.

Silently Jack moved to the shadows and watched the scene unfold before him. He saw the young man approach the statue of the Virgin Mary and lay the bundle at her feet. Then he stilled as the young woman approached, whirling on her as soon as she drew near.

He watched as the young man's lips quirk happily at the sight of her. But as happy as he looked to see her, all she seemed was sad. She whispered something that Jack couldn't make out.

Instantly the man's demeanor turned frosty. Silence stretched between them before he answered her in a tone that made Jack's blood. Even from where Jack was hiding he could hear it. "You know why."

Jack felt as if he has just been handed a key without knowing what it unlocks. All he knew was that it was important, that if he knew the story behind them, those words would change everything.

But Jack didn't have long to think on it, for suddenly the man was running past him faster than Jack had ever seen another human being move, the woman close on his heels. Briefly, Jack wondered if they were renegade Visitors who stayed behind when Lisa ordered them to leave, but he quickly banished the thought as ridiculous. After the war Jack's face became well enough known as a Fifth Column leader that no Visitor would ever dare show his face in Jack's church.

No, they weren't Visitors. But they weren't human either. Their eyes would have told him that if nothing else. Those eyes were not the eyes of the twenty-something year-olds that they appear to be. Rather they were the eyes of soldiers who had seen the heat of battle. Jack sighed. He knew those eyes. They were his too.

Jack shook himself from his thoughts. He could think about young people with old eyes, mysterious answers, and who move to fast to be human later. For now, he had work to do. Confession was about to begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New Chapter!  
> Next Week: Interlude: A Killer's Confession

**Author's Note:**

> So I started this story way back in 2010, but then I kind of ignored it for a while. Then when I was going through my works to transfer over to this site from FF I found it again and decided that I really did have to finish it.  
> So that's what I'm going to do. The goal right now is to post one chapter every other Monday (and I expect anyone reading this to hold me to that, please post annoying messages on the fic until I post the chapter) until the fic is finished. Which will probably be a while, seeing as how I have the rest of season 1 and all of season 2 of Dark Angel already outlined.  
> Til Next Time,  
> Regal


End file.
